


My Spirit Is Too Weak (Weighs Heavily On Me, Like Unwilling Sleep)

by seekrest



Series: Twelve Days of Terror: A Whumptober Collection [11]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Fever, Hurt Peter Parker, Illnesses, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Protective May Parker (Spider-Man), Tony & May Co-Parenting, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 17:43:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21201572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekrest/pseuds/seekrest
Summary: May loved him, protected him - had done so for years. And she was angry, rightfully Tony had thought - that Tony had robbed her of the chance to help Peter in this new way.When May calls him one night, there’s no laughter in her voice - she was direct, firm and straight to the point, Tony hearing the slight fear in her next few words.“Tony, something’s wrong.”





	My Spirit Is Too Weak (Weighs Heavily On Me, Like Unwilling Sleep)

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Fever

Tony knew that Peter never got sick.

It was something May had mentioned once, off-hand and in passing as most of their conversations were in the immediate time after she had found Peter - suit-clad in his room.

She hadn’t yelled, something Tony almost wished she had done instead - the stifled and barely contained anger when he sat across from her, trying and failing to fill the silence between them as she stared at him.

May wasn’t happy - not just about the suit or Peter moonlighting as an arachnid vigilante, but about the lying - something that flooded Tony with shame. Seeing the concern in her eyes, the unbridled love and protection over Peter reminded Tony that for as shitty and as distant as his own parents had been - Peter hadn’t experienced the same. 

May loved him, protected him - had done so for years. And she was angry, rightfully Tony had thought - that Tony had robbed her of the chance to help Peter in this new way.

It’d been three months since that conversation, a tentative truce between the two of them that allowed Tony to take on a more active role in Peter’s life - looping in May in any way he could. 

She cared about everything - asking questions about his suit, what Peter had done in the months he’d kept it from her and Tony obliged, feeling as if with each conversation that he learned more not just about her - but about Peter.

That Peter used to be deathly afraid of needles, something Tony wonders if that still held true.

That Peter used to have asthma, Coke bottle like glasses and would be sick all the time - May being on a first name basis with the emergency room nurses for as much as Peter used to frequent it.

That Peter was accident prone, continuously falling over himself to the point that even when Peter seemed to no longer need his inhaler or what May had assumed had been a transition to the contacts he never used to like to wear - the frequent and random bruises he acquired didn’t send off any red flags. 

May was protective, concerned and loving - something that tugged at Tony’s heart at what he had missed out on yet immediately and immensely grateful that Peter still had. He hadn’t apologized in so many words, but Tony knew he had messed up - projecting his own parental misgivings and allowing the words and promises of a fifteen year old to prevent him for telling May the truth about Peter’s late night escapades. 

When May calls him one night - a night that had actually been quiet, moments before he was actually headed to bed - Tony paused, glancing at the phone in his hand for a beat too long.

“Are you going to answer it?” Pepper asked, bringing Tony out of it as he tapped the button to begin the call.

“Hey May, how’s it hanging?” Tony winced, Pepper giving him a look as he shrugged. It was a bad pun, considering the last time she called Peter had been doing just that - caught in his own web, hanging upside down in his room until May had called Tony to come and cut him free.

It was mortifying for the kid, even if Tony got a kick out of it. 

But there’s no laughter in May’s voice - she was direct, firm and straight to the point, Tony hearing the slight fear in her next few words.

“Tony, something’s wrong.”

Tony immediately tenses, glancing to Pepper who looks back at him in concern.

“What’s going on?”

“I-I don’t know. Peter’s… sick.” 

Tony pauses, pulling up a StarkPad only to see that Peter wasn’t in the suit - thinking to himself how he could finagle a way to always be aware of Peter’s vitals without crossing some kind of personal boundary. 

“He’s sick?” Pepper’s eyebrows furrow as Tony stands up, nodding his head towards the balcony as she smiles. 

He was glad to have her back in his life, but even the gratefulness Tony feels for her presence does nothing to calm the rising anxiety he feels in his chest. 

“It’s-God, I feel ridiculous calling. It’s not like he’s never been sick before but--” 

“But he hasn’t been sick since the bite.” Tony asks.

May’s silence on the other hand is deafening, Tony wondering if it would be too bold of him to ask if he could come over - to see Peter with his own eyes. Tony doesn’t have any kind of medical knowledge that could help him, aside from basic first aid and how to triage wounds as needed in the middle of a fight. 

But there’s a burning in his chest now, an almost irrational need to see Peter - to know that he’s okay that Tony can’t quite explain. Before he can think of the words to ask, May beats him to it. 

“No he hasn’t. And look, I can take care of a sick kid but… I’m not sure with everything, with all of this if…” May trails off for a beat before sighing, her voice becoming more stable over the phone even as Tony walks towards the balcony - suit already encasing around him. 

“Can you come by?” 

Tony nods, transferring the call to the HUD interface of his suit - flying off into the sky.

“On my way.”

* * *

He makes it to the Parker apartment in thirteen minutes. Long enough for Tony’s heart to feel like it was about to jump out of his chest, long enough for FRIDAY to start to run through possible reasons and explanations for why Peter would be sick. 

Tony realized halfway there that he hadn’t even asked what kind of sick he was - to check and see if he had any open wounds or sores, anything that seemed out of the ordinary. It was something he almost considered calling back about, only to stop - wondering if that would be another boundary crossed, if his question would somehow imply that May didn’t know how to care for her own nephew. 

And he was -  _ her _ nephew, May’s responsibility legally and emotionally. 

But as Tony lands on the rooftop, opening the roof door and heading down to where the Parker apartment was - he considers that this feeling in his chest, this ache and this concern for Peter’s well-being was something that he intimately knew he shared with her. 

Tony doesn’t even have to knock, May opening the door a second before he can - seemingly listening for his footsteps. She gives him a short nod, before letting him in - Tony making a bee-line towards Peter’s room. 

He sees Peter in sweatpants, the white cotton of his t-shirt drenched through as he laid across the bed. Tony sees the cold compress on Peter’s head, a variety of medications strewn about his bedside table. 

May comes up behind him, Tony looking to her.

“I... I checked everything we have but I remember you mentioning that because of the bite, normal meds don’t work on him anymore?”

Tony nods before turning back to Peter, walking closer before saying, “FRIDAY, scan him.” He turns back to May.

“Yeah, kid’s got an enhanced immune system. Not sure how much NyQuil would do for him here.” 

May nods as if it was confirming something for herself before turning back to Peter, Tony following her line of sight. 

Peter looks exhausted, beads of sweat trailing down from his temple as he wheezes - Tony’s eyes glancing around to see what could have caused Peter - a kid that Tony knows could catch a bus with his bare hands - to be so chillingly still. 

FRIDAY’s voice rings out, Tony being glad that she seemed to pick up that May was right there beside him - voice loud enough for May to hear. 

“There appears to be an unknown toxin in his system, alien in origin. His temperature is at 104.7 boss, and rising.”

“Alien?” He hears May whisper, Tony listening as FRIDAY continues. 

“I am currently scanning for possible antidotes but without knowledge of what the toxin is, solutions are limited.”

Tony swallows down the panic in his throat, leaning forward as he moves the compress away, feeling how hot it was from the heat radiating off of Peter’s skin. 

Peter’s breathing is haggard, his pillow and sheets drenched with sweat as he shivers. He feels May come up beside him, kneeling down as she brings her hand to softly rest on Peter’s. 

It’s silent between them, the only sound the awful and ragged breathing coming from Peter before she speaks. 

“He came home and he was fine. I didn’t, I didn’t think to ask if something was wrong.”

“You know Pete, he’ll never say what’s going on.” Tony answers without thinking, wincing as he realizes the words coming out of his mouth. Of course May would know, May knows him better than anyone - has been his aunt and acted as his mother figure for longer than Tony’s even been around. 

But May doesn’t take the words as a rebuke, just looking back to Tony with something her eyes that that almost looks like surprise. 

“Yeah, he does. Bad habit of his from Ben.” 

Tony nods, before May reaches out her other hand to his shoulder - Tony glancing to it before looking back at her.

They say nothing yet Tony feels as if she’s speaking to him all the same, an understanding between the two of them. 

Tony had hidden the truth from May, at Peter’s request - and it was a mistake that he knew he’d spend as much as time possible working to fix. And though he can tell all isn’t quite forgiven between the two of them, there’s a subtle shift in her expression that tells Tony that she understands him - understands now just how much he cares for Peter.

And Tony does, he can’t even begin to try and deny it - the weight on his chest telling him that he’d search across the planet, the universe - to find out whatever he could to fix whatever had happened to Peter.

But she says nothing and neither does he, Tony just nodding as he brings a hand over to rest over hers on his shoulder before looking back to Peter - bringing that same hand to rest on the kid’s forehead.

Peter is on fire - his breathing getting more and more ragged as they sit there.

Tony doesn’t know how to fix this, just as he knows that Peter doesn’t get sick. 

But with May’s hand on his shoulder, his own hand resting on Peter’s forehead - he understands this. 

Tony doesn’t know what to do. 

But at least he won’t have to figure it out alone. 


End file.
